Handheld portable game systems that have liquid crystal display (LCD) screens are well known and are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,830. US patent application 2002/0165028 discloses a portable game system that has a main processor and an image processing unit for display on an LCD screen, but this coprocessor does not generate characters with texture mapped polygons. U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,610 describes a video game system that generates characters with texture mapped polygons in a non-portable game machine, but does not mention a portable game machine. U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,171 describes a portable game system that provides a stereoscopic display, but does not mention polygons. U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,570 describes a game system that renders polygons but it is not a portable game system. U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,315 describes both a portable game system and a video game console system, but the portable system does not generate polygons and the console system that generates polygons is not portable.
Therefore, a need exists for a portable game system that generates and displays natural looking pictures of animated characters that are rendered as 3-dimensional (3D) texture-mapped polygons, and also display multiple views of the game characters on the LCDs from different points of view and angles in a natural-looking 3D game world.
It is also desirable for the 3D characters to be displayed stereoscopically in a 3D the LCD display device.